Our post today covers some connectivity problems on a #GalaxyNote4 reported by some members of our community. Internet-related problems come in many forms and it is impossible to tackle all of them in one post. We hope though that this article will still help some of us who may be experiencing similar problems mentioned here.

These are the topics discussed in this post:

1. Galaxy Note 4 cannot connect to the internet when connected via Wi-Fi
2. Galaxy Note 4 loses signal and Google Maps and Waze apps not working
3. Galaxy Note 4 cannot sign in to websites
4. Galaxy Note 4 Play Store and web browser won’t connect to the Internet
5. Galaxy Note 4 Wi-Fi problem after updating to Lollipop

If you are looking for solutions to your own #Android issue, you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of that page.

Problem #1: Galaxy Note 4 cannot connect to the internet when connected via Wi-Fi

Greetings. I am travelling. Now in Italy. I connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi only. At first, everything was fine but since a few days, although I can connect to the Wi-Fi at the house where I am staying now, I cannot go to the Internet.

However, connected to the Wi-Fi in a different place, the Internet works fine.

Any idea of the cause of the problem and how to fix it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks. — Daniel

Solution: Hi Daniel. If you did not change anything on your Note 4, the cause of the problem may be on the Wi-Fi settings. Make sure to let the Wi-Fi administrator know about the problem so they can check if a restriction or filter has been enabled. There are a number of filters a Wi-Fi administrator can use to limit a device or devices from connecting to the internet including MAC filtering, Static IP addressing, Firewall filtering, to mention a few.

MAC filtering is usually the most efficient way to go if an administrator wants to manage devices in a network to, say, connect to the internet. If you are staying at a friend’s house, make sure to let them know that your device has stopped connecting to the internet. Somebody in the household may be monitoring the connected devices in the network and may have tagged your phone as unfamiliar or unknown, effectively disallowing your phone to connect to the internet.

Problem #2: Galaxy Note 4 loses signal and Google Maps and Waze apps not working

GPS signal is weak. When using Google Maps or Waze, it loses signal and stops giving turn by turn directions. Gone in to T-Mobile. They changed the SD card but no change. Exchanged my phone for another one and GPS worked for about a month and problems started again with new phone. — Bryan

Solution: Hi Bryan. An issue that persist even after using a different phone may be caused by a third party app so your first task is to check whether or not that is the case. The best way to do this is by booting your Note 4 in safe mode. If you haven’t tried it before, here are things that you should do:

• Turn off the phone completely.
• Press and hold the Power key and the Volume Down key.
• When the phone starts to boot, release the Power key but continue holding the Volume Down key until the phone finished restarting.
• Safe mode will be display at the lower left corner; you may release the Volume Down key now.

When in safe mode, your phone will prevent third party apps from running. If our hunch is correct, the issue will not occur as long as you enable safe mode. Make sure to do a follow up by uninstalling potential problem apps. If you don’t have any idea what app to remove, simply uninstall the least used once first until you will notice that the issue is gone. This process may take some time but this is the most effective way to isolate the cause of the problem.

Problem #3: Galaxy Note 4 cannot sign in to websites

I sent in a couple of screen shots earlier in the week. I have no idea if they were received. I think it was Barbara (?) that sent me a special link to submit the screen shots.

I’m having trouble signing in to different websites from my phone. If my username is my email address, I get a message saying “invalid email address”.  I’ve spoken to Google, Verizon and searched the Web.

I am putting the address in correctly and that’s why I took the screen shots. They think I’m a moron!

I’ve cleared the history, cache, restarted phone etc. I had this happen on my Note 2 as well.

Is this something with my phone or the site I’m trying to connect with?

I always get through on my PC. Which is what I have to resort to. Ever seen this problem before?

The people I have talked to have never seen this before and couldn’t help me. Mostly because they think I am entering the wrong info, which I am not.

Thanks for any help with this. — Janice

Solution: Hi Janice. We have not received any of your screenshots nor do we have a Barbara in our team here. You may have sent the files to a different site.

Anyhow, let’s see if we can fix your issue. We assume that you are using a web browser (like the stock Android browser, Google Chrome for Android, Mozilla Firefox for Android, etc) when trying to sign in to websites on your phone. These are the things that you must do to fix the problem.

Ensure the phone has correct data and time

Some websites are designed not to respond to sign in requests if the device trying to log in runs an incorrect date and time. It could also be that your Note 4 is refusing to connect to the websites you are trying to connect to as it cannot find a valid site certificate as their validity does not match your device’s date and time. This makes the phone thinks you are trying to connect to an unsecured website, thus preventing the connection. Whatever the reason is, try to keep the phone’s date and time up-to-date. To change the phone’s date and time, follow these steps:

• Go to Settings.
• Tap Date and time.
• Tap Automatic date and time to turn it on.
• If you want to manually set the date and time, simply turn off Automatic date and time update, then press Set date and Set time.
• You also need to turn on automatic time zone update by simply tapping and holding it until it’s enabled.

Try using another browser

If you haven’t tried using browser, now is the time to do so. Some sites may not work when accessed via a particular browser. We know this sucks but there are still many websites that are only meant to be viewed in Internet Explorer browser so they may not be fully optimized to work in another browser, or may be totally inaccessible on a mobile at all.

Perform a factory reset

If changing the phone’s date and time and using another browser won’t help, consider doing a factory reset to ensure that there’s no firmware glitch that may be causing the trouble. If you haven’t tried to do a factory reset before, just follow these steps:

• Turn off the Galaxy Note 4 completely.
• Press and hold the Volume Up and the Home keys together, then press and hold the Power key.
• When the Note 4 vibrates, release both the Home and Power keys but continue holding the Volume Up key.
• When the Android System Recovery shows on the screen, release the Vol Up key.
• Using the Volume Down key, highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset’ and press the Power key to select it.
• Now highlight ‘Yes — delete all user data’ using the Vol Down key and press the Power key to begin the reset.
• When the master reset is complete, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and hit the Power key.
• The Note 4 will restart but it will be longer than usual. When it reaches the Home screen, then begin your setup.

Problem #4: Galaxy Note 4 Play Store and web browser won’t connect to the Internet

Hi there, I’m Ashley. My mom got the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 quite a few months ago and is just having problem after problem with it. Her messages randomly delete without her deleting them & auto delete is not on. I can literally take a selfie and it’s gone two seconds later but yet she has tons of pictures in her Gallery so some stay and some delete & not one notification has popped up to say her pictures were full.

Also, the Internet browsers like the actual Internet app, and the Play Store just will not connect whether it be on Wi-Fi or not, but you can still get on Facebook. I know quite a few people with the same phone and they don’t have any problems. Could it be a big on her phone? Thanks so much! — Ashley

Solution: Hi Ashley. We’re a bit confused here. Is the phone auto deleting messages, photos, or both? If the phone is auto deleting text messages, you have to change the limitation option on how many text messages can be stored on a single thread under Messages settings.  We are assuming that you are using the stock Messaging app so here are the steps to change the limitation:

• Open the Messaging app.
• Tap the menu icon on the upper right hand side of the screen (3-dot icon).
• Go to Settings.
• Look for the Delete Old Messages option and tap it.
• You can turn this feature on or off by sliding the controller.
• If you want to keep all your messages, simply slide it to OFF.

If the phone appears to be auto deleting pictures, these are the things that you can do:

• Sort pictures by albums instead of sort by Time
• Try using another storage device (or SD card)
• Change the save directory for your photos

You have to make sure that your photos are saved to albums or directory that you can easily find. If the save directory was changed before and you don’t know where to find it, this may be the reason why the phone may appear to be auto deleting the pictures. To set the storage location of your photos, just follow these steps:

• Open the Camera app.
• Tap Settings (gear icon).
• Tap More (3-dot icon on top)
• Tap Storage Location.
• Select the storage device you want to use to store your photos.

How to fix web browser and Play Store problem

If these two apps don’t seem to connect to the internet, try to do these solutions:

Wipe the cache partition

The phone’s system uses a set of temporary files, also known as cache, to load apps quickly. If the cache becomes corrupted or may contain irrelevant files, it may lead to all sorts of problems. Wiping the cache may not only fix problems but will also allow apps to run efficiently. Here are the steps to do it:

• Turn off the Galaxy Note 4 completely.
• Press and hold the Volume Up and the Home keys together, then press and hold the Power key.
• When the Note 4 vibrates, release both the Home and Power keys but continue holding the Volume Up key.
• When the Android System Recovery shows on the screen, release the Volume Up key.
• Using the Volume Down key, highlight the option ‘wipe cache partition’ and press the Power key to select it.
• When the wiping of the cache partition is finished, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and hit the power key.

Delete cache and data

For isolated app problems, issues can sometimes be fixed by simply deleting the cache and data. Unlike wiping the cache partition, this solution is only covers the app involved. For example, since you have a problem loading the Google Play Store app, you simply need to delete its cache and data to get it back to its working order again.

Keep in mind that deleting an app’s data will erase all app settings and credentials on it. Deleting data is the virtual equivalent of re-installing an app so it wipes everything associated with it. Make sure you have your Google credentials handy after wiping Play Store’s data.

Here are the steps to do this:

• Go to Settings.
• Proceed to Applications.
• Select Manage Applications.
• Tap the All tab.
• Choose the name of the app and tap it.
• From there, you will see the Clear Cache and Clear Data buttons.

Problem #5: Galaxy Note 4 Wi-Fi problem after updating to Lollipop

Hi Droid Guy. I’m having trouble with my Wi-Fi connection when I’m using WhatsApp web eversince i upgraded to 5.0 Lollypop on my Note 4. After working fine for a while, my phone’s Wi-Fi goes off and doesn’t reconnect again until i don’t restart my phone. Don’t know what’s causing this, but i have tried deleting my Wi-Fi connection and reconnecting and re-entering the password, but they don’t seem to work.

Also performed a factory reset, the problem didn’t go away but doesn’t happen as frequently. my router is fine and also tried restarting it n resetting it. Do i have to live with this? I’m using same apps as i was using before the upgrade. Why is this happening only after upgrading to 5.0? Please Help. Thanks. — Jeeten

Solution: Hi Jeeten. If you are using exactly the same set of apps after updating to Lollipop, that might very well be the reason why you have this trouble now. One of your apps may be to blame. Try booting the phone in safe mode and see if makes any difference.

You can also visit our previous post, Why Android Lollipop Causes Problems, for more information about this issue.

Engage with us

If you are one of the users who encounters a problem with your device, let us know. We offer solutions for Android-related problems for free so if you have an issue with your Android device, simply fill in the short questionnaire in this link and we will try to publish our answers in the next posts. We cannot guarantee a quick response so if your issue is time sensitive, please find another way to resolve your problem. 

When describing your issue, please be as detailed as possible so we can easily pinpoint a relevant solution. If you can, kindly include the exact error messages you are getting to give us an idea where to start. If you have already tried some troubleshooting steps before emailing us, make sure to mention them so we can skip them in our answers.

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